The Diamond, a Dog, and Misunderstandings
by E.J. Cady
Summary: Is Tara crazy enough to want to spend eternity with Pamela Swynford De Beaufort?
1. Chapter 1

Tara snorted, "I don't know why I still waste my time slumming it with you humans."

"Slumming," Sam almost sounded offended, "and who are you calling human?"

"Don't mind my big bad blood sucking cousin Sam, she just mad cause her other half is traipsing around Europe with tall blonde and delicious."

Jealousy was an obvious emotion Tara hadn't indulged in for a long time for good reason. The bond between Pam and Eric wouldn't break at every emotional temper tantrum that travelled through their link. It fed on Tara's insecurities and she'd go insane and push Pam away before she made progress in the vicinity of commitment.

Tara grimaced, "I got no interest in knowing how you know Eric is delicious."

"That's fine hookah 'cause I got no interest in telling all my secrets."

Sam lowered his bottle of beer, "Didn't he tie you up and torture you?"

"If I said I kinda liked it would you lose respect for me?"

The bar owner admits, "I would if I had any for you."

"Fair enough."

Lafayette earned a kick from his cousin, "you nasty bitch."

"Only Tuesday through Saturday between the hours of 5 a.m. to 5 a.m."

A curious shape shifter asked, "what about Sunday and Monday?"

"I pamper myself with rest and old movies where the baddest bitches make those vindictive entrances wearing diamonds and silk."

Tara glared, "you never did grow out of that huh?"

"You don't grow out of good tastes hookah, once you've got it there's no washing your hands of it."

The front door opened and slammed and a blur of a body rushed up the stairs in the direction of the main bedroom.

Lafayette whistled, "there she blows…"

It often baffled the bar owner how Tara could stand Pam's cantankerous nature, "what the hell has her pissed off now?"

Tara shrugged uninterested in following Pam to find out. It was best to let the older woman come to her when she had a bad day, by then she knew she could be civil. Yet, she was curious as to why she returned early from her trip.

Eric strolled in the room wearing black, "She told me to keep the car running. Whatever you did it's got something to do with Montreal."

Sam worried, "she knows about Montreal?"

Lafayette's brow rose, "you stepped out on Pam with a Canadian?"

"What…no," she turned away from her cousin addressing Sam, "we were careful."

Sam hissed, "how would she know?"

Resigned Tara sighed, "how do women know anything, it's one of life's greatest mysteries."

The enraged blonde-haired woman joined them with a velvet box in a white-knuckle grip. She grimaced at the Christmas music in the background, "what the hell is this?"

Tara deadpans, "a box."

Sam's eyes bulge recognizing it.

"Do you know what's inside it?"

"You know what's inside it I know what's inside it, what's with the twenty questions?"

"I knew you were crazy, but do you think I'd marry into it?"

Tara licks her lips glancing at Sam, "it's not what you—"

"We wouldn't last one day married let alone eternity."

"It's not what you think," she promised.

"I think it's a diamond engagement ring I found in your sock drawer."

"Okay," the younger vampire conceded, "that part is what you think."

Pam was spiraling, "you are crazy to think I'd be crazy to say yes, marriage would be insane. How would you even begin to ask because I don't do gondolas and you won't get me anywhere near a jumbotron?"

"Look Pam the thing is—"

"The thing is she loves you," Sam stood between the women startling everyone in the room. Tara tried to interrupt, but Sam held up a warning finger hushing the dark skinned woman, "no now Tara I can't stay quiet, tis' the season to speak from the heart."

Pam shifted her weight to another foot impatiently.

"And you," he pointed accusingly, "have you no shame?"

He started walking towards her and stopped adjacent to the recliner Lafayette leaned out of for a better view of Pam's reaction.

"I'm not familiar with that feeling, but I guess if I had your wardrobe I'd have an idea."

Sam ignored the insult, "You really don't know do you?"

"That you're an irritating meat sack that's losing his value every second he opens his mouth?"

"No," he paused meaningfully, "that that vampire right there loves you."

"Sam," Tara warned.

"And not just love the way humans define it, but since I'm closest to human I guess the best way I'd have to describe it is. The best way to describe how she feels is: She could stay awake just to hear you breathing, watch you smile while you are sleeping, while you're far away and dreaming, she could spend her life in this sweet surrender. She could stay lost in this moment forever, 'cause every moment spent with you is a moment she treasures."

Tara held her fist over her mouth watching Lafayette's brow fold suspiciously at the familiar words.

In predictable Pam fashion, "I'm going to rip your throat out and feed it to a puppy."

"What's so bad about spending forever with the only woman who's crazy enough to want to?"

Pam stared dumbly at the blonde bar owner with gray stubble on his chin.

"Nothing," Sam answered for her, "not a—"

Pam obstructed his airway with an angry grip on his throat. In the seconds, it took everyone to realize the blonde meant to fulfill her promise Pam surprisingly released him. He crumbled at her feet holding his throat struggling for air.

Blue eyes bore into chocolate brown and the fury inside them tempered substantially from when she found the box, "Tara."

She heard the summons in the tone. She followed Pam outside through the sliding door window gave the common room a view of the pool.

Tara was ready to tell the truth, "Pam—"

"Is this about Eric?"

Anger welled in Tara's chest irrationally, "no."

"It's embarrassing to hear it from Lassie in plaid no less," her maker started, "I feel it, but a girl likes to hear the words and I suppose you'd have gotten it out at the speed of molasses."

Tara blinked. When in doubt she kept her mouth shut.

"Is this a joke?"

"What?"

"The ring, a commitment, a wedding you pick?"

"I'm not laughing."

"Vampire's don't do marriage."

"Who said we had to be like every vampire, we ain't, and we never will be."

"I won't wear white."

Tara warily replied, "okay."

"I detest most of your friends especially Lassie."

"In a hundred years you'll barely remember them."

Pam eyed her until impatience won out, "are you going to propose to me or not?"

Tara shook her head, "not yet."

"Why? Have I ruined some grand romantic gesture you spent months working on because you know that if I was to say yes, I wouldn't dare say yes to something mediocre?"

"You're holding the ring."

Pam clenched the box tighter never breaking eye contact with Tara. When she handed it over the dark skinned woman checked the diamond.

"Well?"

"Not yet," Tara repeated replacing the lid.

"When?"

"When I decide."

"I might change my mind by then."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take."

A blonde brow hiked.

Tara refused to be bullied by a lone brow or the pout punctuated by her lover's blood red lipstick.

"I could make you."

"That's a little desperate even for you."

"I'll be back tomorrow morning," she apologized.

Tara understood the demand of Pam's work as Eric's second in command. She protected him, supported him, and maimed for him for the sake of an internal battle for power. She felt like a homemaker waiting for her soldier to return from battle. Although their business hadn't turned out to be all out war the game of politics was just as dangerous if not more.

Diving for Tara's mouth Pam sucked on her lower lip replacing them with teeth nibbling softly until she drew blood.

It was her version of saying, "I'll make it up to you."

Pam turned without a word visibly irritated by Tara's lack of proposal. However, if she were honest with herself the younger vampires' refusal incited a spark of anticipation. In the same strange way she arrived, she left with Eric in tow sending a lazy glance in Tara's direction.

Bouncing the box in her hand Tara met his unwavering gaze until the elder vampire disappeared just as suddenly as Pam.

Tossing the box to the shape shifter, "Aerosmith, that's the best you could do?"

"I panicked."

"Now she expects me to propose to her, as in on my knee grand romantic gesture proposal, propose to her."

"It would have happened some century or another," Sam stated unsympathetically.

"Well my friend you've just cost yourself another trip to Montreal because I'm keeping the ring."

Sam frowned, "hey wait—"

"No, you should have let me tell Pam about Luna _and_ you're going help figure out how to propose to her."

"Hell no."

"Hell yes," Tara asserted.

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Happy Holidays to all and salute to Aerosmith. By the way, I rewrote For the Love of the Game and I posted it on inkitt feel free to check it out. Also, I'll be posting more works up there so you'll have two sites to stalk my stories if my muse doesn't abandon me.


	2. Chapter 2

One of the small pleasures of their relationship was the languid sensuality Tara possessed absorbed in a new world thread together by an author Pam feigned disinterest. If she did engage Tara in a conversation of literature, it would go on forever and become harder to distract the younger vampire from the recreational activity that interested Pam the most.

This time, however, she was not interested in stripping Tara out of her torn shirt or her boy briefs. She forced her mind off the glowing dark skin and the perfect curve of her backside. Pam was angry, perhaps irrationally, but she would not let reason quiet her. Because when she opened the door to their home, she expected music, not a fanfare, but maybe the cliché Barry White. As she frowned, because she had to frown at Tara's horrible attempt at romance, she expected to glare at a trail of flowers leading to their bedroom sandwiched by flickering candles she would equally hate. No music and no flowers and yet the frown remained at the unchanged décor of her flawless home.

From the plane, to the states and limo ride here Pam rode with the fantasy of an intimate proposal in her head. When Tara first approached her with the idea of waiting, she felt conflicted. Waiting gave her time to change her mind and the most disturbing torture accompanying the wait were the incessant fantasies. She'd been caught once during a meeting almost missing her cue to back Eric and irrevocably damage her reputation as an ice queen. Ice queens do not daydream. It was a mantra, a useless one, she repeated in her head as she let herself sink deeper in her musings.

The part of her happy to hear the usual quiet of their home did not surpass that irrational rage and that small pleasure walking into their bedroom to a scantily clad girlfriend forgotten, "you're enjoying this entirely too much Tara Thornton."

Pam strode in their bedroom to see her lover sprawled on the bed with a book.

"Whatever do you mean dahling?"

"That southern twang won't get you out of trouble."

"There's no ulterior motives with the twang my love cause, I got no idea on what trouble you speak of," Tara turned the page and adjusted the angle of her head.

"If I have to spell it out…you don't want me to spell it out Tara."

"You've been gone a month how could I have gotten into trouble in the," she checked her watch, " five minutes you've been here."

"I'll give you a hint it's a shiny rock that glitters."

Tara cursed Sam Merlotte a thousand times over in her head. She returned it to the drawer where Pam found it last time. She'd completely forgotten about the ring, the misunderstanding, and Pam's surprising response to the prospect of impending nuptials.

Her eyes lowered to the book she was reading, "oh that."

Pam bit the bottom of her lip counting back from ten as Tara had always suggested before she gave into the impulse to rip a head or two off.

Too calmly the blonde repeated, "oh that, like it slipped your mind."

In truth it had, but Tara thought it was in her best interest to postpone the truth, "it didn't."

"So you're going to keep me waiting?"

Tara still turned the page of her book the words barely in focus, but she wouldn't give Pam the satisfaction of see that truth.

"Someone once told me the fun is in the waiting."

The irate vampire deadpanned, "I was going down on you at the time it's not the same thing."

"Pam," Tara finally looked up when she trusted her mouth to behave, "I love you I'm going to marry you, what's the rush, we have forever."

"You've barely lived a decade—"

"You're right and you've lived several I expect you would have more patience with this," Tara closed her book on her finger rolling off the bed to her feet.

"I could have had a Duke or the owner of a multimillion dollar company I even had a sultan order twenty of his most beautiful concubines to going down on me as a offer of marriage."

Tara refrained from smiling when she noticed Pam's disingenuous pout and pulled a bag from the closet.

"I chose none of them, you know why?"

Tara began packing a week's worth of clothing, "because you decided to wait for love?"

"They were all very good candidates for eternity Tara, but something always held me back I'd like to call it common sense, but I've been losing faith in that assumption since I've met you." She faltered trying to understand what she couldn't voice until words poured out, "It's…..I don't like going to bed without you, I feel needy and I don't like it… but I like it at the same time. The others I did not care if they jumped off a bridge into a moat of lava and suffered for an eternity. You are not like the others. I care if you jump. And then the thing with Eric."

Tara whipped around, "there's a thing with a Eric?"

"No, yes, but it's not the way you think. I had pride in travelling with a master vampire like Eric, his right hand one of a handful of assets he could trust and I know what they said behind my back. That I'm stuck so far up his ass it's how I spend my Friday nights or that I'd sleep there if I could fit a coffin. Comments like that didn't bother me because I took so much pride by his side, as his most loyal and trusted….Now I don't have the same pride and I fear that people can see it and it reflects horribly on him that I, who he's entrusted his back to, is distracted by, of all things, a proposal from her progeny. I feel, like I suspect a love struck girl would… stupid, excited, horrible, and giddy."

"Giddy?"

"Please tell me that's not the only thing that you processed up there or I'll be highly upset with you."

Tara abandoned her bag, "Pam giddy, the words don't taste right in my mouth in the same sentence."

Pam crossed her arms causing the younger vampire to snort, "you don't get to go all vulnerable on me then clam up because I'm still trying process what you said."

Tara reached out for her pulling a resistant blonde into her arms. Frank eyes lowered to the arms still crossed creating an inopportune gap between their bodies. Pam was not budging.

"You're one of the scariest women I have ever met, not because you have the power to make me walk out into the sun and stay there or the fact that you can wipe out the last vestiges of my human life in less than five minutes. It scares the hell out of me that you don't—you have all this power this raw sexuality, this cute persona you hide behind primal Pam and you're trusting me with it. It's the best I love you that you could never say."

Pam tries to wrench free. Tara wouldn't relinquish her grip, ducking her head meeting blue eyes the dark skinned vampire smirks, "I love you too."

"You're not going to end that with a proposal are you?"

The comment earned a scowl, "if I was you ruined it."

"Not that it wasn't….cute….I think you know it'll take a lot more than cute think extravagant and ostentatious."

"Sound expensive, I was thinking something along the lines of Barry White and rose petals."

Pam cringed, "and now you can never do it because you told me about it."

"Why?"

"I'll expect it," the older vampire disagreed.

"You've been daydreaming for a month. I'm already at a disadvantage."

"It's your fault for waiting so long," Pam pulled away to drop to the edge of their bed.

Tara looked for her and the bag she'd been packing then back to her girlfriend posing alluringly. She almost joined her until Pam's delicate finger signaled 'no'.

"You know I don't remember what it ever felt like to be a virgin."

Tara frowned, "what's that got to do with anything?"

She rose on one arm, "I've got a hell of an idea."

Brown eyes narrowed.

"No sex."

"What?"

"Until marriage."

Tara still felt she was missing something, "what?"

"Let's try it, I want to try it."

A humorous laugh erupted from Tara lazily, "what?"

Tara watched Pam's hand disappear under her dress. She watched the predator move and as hapless as a lamb she was useless to speed to safety. The dark skinned vampire's nostrils flared with the familiar smell of her lover and the month that had gone by quickly felt excruciating, the throbbing need between her legs reminded her.

The blonde's voice dropped in a seductive timbre, "the quicker I get my proposal, the sooner we can set the date, the faster…..you get what you want."

Pam raised closing in on Tara using the finger, moist with her juices, to caress the younger vampire's lower lip before Tara slurped the digit. The older vampire too her finger away abruptly intent on a long hot bath to augment the satisfying victory she could already taste.


	3. Chapter 3

Leaves collided making a country soundtrack augmented by a cricket and miscellaneous soothing noises called nature. Neither Sam nor Tara wanted to go inside opting to enjoy the simplicity of doing nothing on his front porch.

"She's playing with my emotions," Tara groused.

Sam chewed, "do you want to get married?"

"I figured forever was going to happen and we didn't need the bells and whistles." Tara glared at Sam, "why do we need bells and whistle?"

"Women like decoration. A wedding is just decoration for their lives. I go to Luna's house and I see plants and rugs that match the color of the pillows of the couch," he sighed, "whose got time to match the colors of the rug to a couch?"

Tara considered the rug in their home and the pillows. Pam was adamant about designing their home with as little of Tara's input as possible.

Sam continued, "and I ain't talking about the generic coral pillow neither, I'm talking about a pillow with different color shapes and she chooses a square of coral, it is madness. That's as close to a simple woman as I'm going to get."

"No such thing as a simple woman, Pam lived for a century and she's seen thousands of things and done thousands of things and I can't believe she wants to spend her life with me. But she does, the way I propose is important to her, I need something big Sam, nothing simple."

"You should hire a professional."

"Do they have people like that, to help me propose?"

"They got services for everything nowadays, it doesn't hurt to do some research. Luna ain't been on the earth that long so there's not a lot of pressure, but think about Pam the thousand things Pam's seen and done, it's daunting."

Sam whistled happy he hadn't fallen in love with a vampire.

"Maybe I could present her with a line of Asian women to feed on and at the end I could get on my knee and propose."

"Weak."

"Fuck you."

"I'm pretty much a guru now, "he raised his bottle to the air then to his lips before he drank.

On his porch he in the twilight still wearing his button up and good jeans, from his proposal of marriage to Luna six hours ago he called Tara to celebrate. The vampire arrived with gleaming fangs he could see when she smiled. Though, her mood doused the elation on the conversation of pending nuptials and the consequences of Tara's forgetfulness.

Tara wouldn't stroke his ego, "you've said it enough for the both of us."

"A man can stand to hear it again."

"I don't care what you can stand to hear Sam Merlotte, I live with the most stubborn and vindictive vampire this side of Bon Temp. And it's your fault she's become unbearable."

"I asked a friend for a favor, I didn't know said friend had a girlfriend with a closet desire to be proposed to."

"Yea, well she does," Tara was tired of the blame game because truthfully she had bigger issues, "it's really the sex man."

He was confused, "I thought you said you weren't having any."

"I'm not."

"Suffering from blue balls?"

"Not me, Pam."

"Pa….no, she looks like a rock."

"She ain't no rock, she has needs and this attitude has nothing to do with the kind of frustration you think….think Captain Planet."

"The cartoon?"

"Yea you know how the combined powers of earth, wind, fire, water and heart made Captain Planet," she didn't wait for his acknowledging nod, "blood, fear, sarcasm, wit and twat combined make Pam, without a key ingredient she's this raging doppelganger who I can't live with. She's impossible, skimpy shorts around the house she's taken to washing dishes in her underwear."

"It's that bad Pam's resorted to washing dishes to seduce you?"

"When she's home I can't escape the bipolar product of this waiting until marriage thing."

"Sounds like she wants it give it to her."

"No no no no I can't be the one to give in first, she wants me to that's why she's suddenly forgot how to dress herself. Do you have any idea what I just left before I came over here?"

Sam shook his head.

"Mary Tyler Moore and drinking some Norwegian black market blood Pam brought home to butter me up. When Pam comes in from the bedroom her hairs wet over the shoulders of my gray 'I want Cookie' Cookie Monster tank top and I know she only chose that shirt for the way her belly button peaks from underneath the hem."

"Well, the shirt wasn't subtle."

"Then she put on my red and navy striped boy shorts that barely reach passed the buttocks."

Sam helped, "and then she sits down wearing some sweet smelling expensive perfume that's hard to pronounce."

"You're half right. I get a whiff of her sweet smelling expensive hard to pronounce perfume on her way to the kitchen. I know there aren't dishes in the sink and Pam's wearing too many clothes to wash dishes anyway. I hear her moving around and I smell her before she drops on the couch beside me letting everything ride up to expose more skin."

Sam swallowed in sympathy.

"I didn't look left right up or down for five minutes until I broke. She choreographed everything from the bowl of ice cream on her lap to some of it dropping on her stomach. The way she dipped her finger and licked….. you saved my life with the phone call Sam, because I don't think I would've made it. If I give in then she'll give in and we'll have mind blowing sex until neither one of us can move and it'll be my fault somehow like she wasn't asking for it."

"I think the reward outweighs the consequences."

Tara shook her head, "no, she wants no sex until marriage."

The part that perplexed Sam, "what are you going to do?"

"Play hard to get."

"But she's already got you."

"You know that, I know that, she knows that."

"Anyone with a pair of eyes would know it, what's the point?"

"If I'm going to spend the rest of my life with her she can't rule me with threats."

Sam wasn't fooled, "you're an iron fist with a pulse."

"And there's still room for some self respect."

"What about a trip to Paris, to propose?"

"The closest I've ever come to Paris is New Orleans."

"Then do something there, something to make her fall in love with you all over again. That's the key in my humble opinion. You ain't got her until she's wearing a ring everything up until moment culminates in a request and she's got a few precious seconds to weigh all you been through and how she feels before she gives you a answer. Take a page out of my book Tara, take a page."


End file.
